Sunday, September 24, 2017

Hi everyone! We are heading into our second week of Junior Robotics and I couldn't be more excited! Our meeting is tomorrow from 5 to 8 and we will feed you beforehand. We have our hands full this year with 14 FLL Jr. teams, 6 FLL teams and 1 FTC team so we need all the help we can get.

For all FLL Jr. mentors, here is the lesson plan for tomorrow's meeting and here is a YouTube video of me explaining the lesson plan.

This year our FLL Jr. teams finish at 7:30 which is a half an hour earlier than the FLL teams. Some of the students on the FLL Jr teams have siblings on the FLL team so they have to wait for their siblings to finish. It would be nice to have something to entertain them while they wait. I need someone to volunteer to keep the remaining FLL Jr. students busy. I will have something planned for them to do. Please contact me if you are interested.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

This weekend I will be attending a training hosted by HP who has partnered with FIRST to provide this opportunity to learn how to use the HP Sprout Computer. I'm very excited for this since we secured a grant with the Air Force Research Lab to bring HP Sprout computers to all the elementary schools in our district. Now we will be able to work hand-in-hand with teachers and students teaching them all the creative new ways to use this AWESOME computer.

Through the ENSPIRE grant, we received two HP Sprout Computers, two 3D printers, 12 WeDo 2.0s, and 6 Dash Dot robots for each of our local elementary schools. This opens many doors for us in promoting STEM throughout our community, enabling us to bring these resources directly to the youth. This compliments our existing Hour of Code program by providing us with hands-on technology and resources to use during our school visits. I am SO VERY EXCITED to be able to learn more about this awesome technology so that I can train our Outreach team to infiltrate the elementary schools with the knowledge and skills that we gain!

Open registration for Junior Robotics closed on Monday, September 18th, with our Monday Night Meetings hosting 80 students in FLL Jr., 36 in FLL, and about 12 in FTC. Golden Hills has continued their three FLL teams and will compete in the Central Valley Region with us this year. Cummings Valley has also launched their own teams, started two FLL Jr. and two FLL teams. All of these teams are run and mentored by our team members, led by Rocky for FLL Jr., Chloe for FLL, and Adam for FTC.

It takes a lot of time and commitment to run these teams and we are so proud of all our team members who can dedicate their time and effort towards shepherding the next generation of Cyber Penguins!

Along those lines, it's not too late to volunteer to help out. We can definitely use more student volunteers to help lead the teams. Additionally, adult mentors are appreciated and valued! Just contact us through the team email for more information!

Sunday, September 17, 2017

The time has come, registration ends tonight and we will launch our third year of Junior Robotics! Just as a recap, we started this in 2015 with 15 kids making up three FLL Jr. teams that met at our high school. In 2016, that ballooned to over 140 kids in 12 FLL Jr. teams, 7 FLL teams, and 1 FTC team meeting at our high school and one of our feeder elementary schools! We don't expect another huge amount of growth, but that still requires a lot of teamwork and dedication, so I am so glad that you are with us to make the 2017 Junior Robotics program our best yet!

Monday will be a little crazy while we get the kids into their teams and collect their paperwork. Our overall plan is to get to know our kids, come up with a team name and start learning about the challenges before us. We will get into the meat of playing with LEGOs and designing robots at next week's meeting. Chloe and I will both be there on Monday to give you more details and help you get ready for running your teams. See you then, and thanks again for being a part of this awesome program!